Lost Traffic Ticket in Kansas
The presiding municipal court or district court can help you find your lost traffic ticket; generally, municipal courts handle city tickets and district courts handle county tickets.
Mostly, these courts provide information about moving violations such as red light tickets, speeding tickets, and possibly even more serious offenses—which is what we've covered below. However, check with your presiding court about where to find information on parking tickets.
How to Search for a Lost Traffic Ticket in KS
To start your traffic ticket search you will need to contact the court that is overseeing your case.
As mentioned above, there are two types of courts that handle KS traffic tickets:
- Municipal:
- You'll deal with a municipal traffic court if you received your citation within city limits.
- District:
- You'll have a district traffic court if you received your ticket from a county officer.
- Often, district courts handle state-level traffic tickets, too.
As long as you know the city or county where you received your ticket, you know which court to contact. Refer to the municipal court or district court directory for your traffic court's contact information.
However, if you don't remember where you were—or if you were pulled over by a city or county officer—you'll have to do some detective work.
Perhaps the best way to help yourself remember is by thinking about your reason for traveling that day. For example, if it was to work, a doctor's appointment, or even a shopping trip, this can help you narrow down the city and county, and you can begin contacting municipal or district courts from there.
Online Traffic Ticket Search
Kansas does not provide a statewide online traffic ticket search system; however, some municipal and district courts offer online searches on their individual websites.
Contact the municipal court or district court handling your traffic ticket to ask about this option.
Record Traffic Ticket Information
Whether your court offers an online traffic ticket search or you have to contact your traffic court for citation information, make sure you record crucial information such as:
- Whether your violation requires a court appearance.
- If so, find out the exact location of the court and the date and time of your appearance.
- Your deadline to respond to the ticket.
- This means the date by which you must either plead “guilty" or “no contest" and pay your fine or plead “not guilty" and set up a hearing date.
- The types of payment options and methods your court accepts (should you choose to pay your fine outright).
- Examples might include paying online, by mail, or by phone using a major credit card, personal check, or cash (if you pay in person).
- Specific traffic ticket details that could help you pay your fine or challenge your ticket, such as:
- Your exact violation
- The violation's location, date, and time.
- The ticketing officer.
- Your citation number.
Respond to Your Kansas Ticket
Either your online search or your traffic court clerk will tell you the deadline by which you must respond to your KS traffic ticket; failing to respond on time puts you at risk for additional penalties.
You might choose to respond by:
- Pleading “guilty" or “no contest" and paying your ticket fine.
- Pleading “not guilty" and scheduling a hearing.
Visit our
Pay Traffic Ticket and Fight Traffic Ticket sections for more details on each option.